Journal of Andrology

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The proposal to produce this final commemorative issue for the Journal of Andrology arose during our regular discussions as current editors soon after it was announced that the Journal would complete its own life course and merge into a new publication (to be named Andrology) with the International Journal of Andrology. We considered the momentous occasion to be one that should be celebrated with an enduring tribute in recognition of the Journal's exceptional 33-year existence. Among the various contributions sought for inclusion in this issue, we envisioned an article assembling collected short essays from all living former editors drawing on notable events and highlights, if not less well-known challenges and successes arising during their editorship eras...

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This review focuses on 3 important advances in our understanding of rodent spermatogonial stem cells (SSC) that have emerged since 2000: the identity of SSC, the existence of a SSC niche, and gene expression in spermatogonia. It is now apparent that the original scheme, in which the A(single) (A(s)) spermatogonia are the only stem cells, may be too simple. Rather, separation of pairs of A(paired) (A(pr)) spermatogonia into singles might also play a role in the steady state situation. However, evidence that in the normal epithelium fragmentation of chains of A(aligned) (A(al)) spermatogonia into smaller clones also plays a role is not yet conclusive...

The ability of spermatozoa to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been appreciated since the 1940s. It is a universal property of mature spermatozoa from all mammalian species and a major contributor to the oxidative stress responsible for defective sperm function. The mechanisms by which oxidative stress limits the functional competence of mammalian spermatozoa involve the peroxidation of lipids, the induction of oxidative DNA damage, and the formation of protein adducts. ROS production in these cells involves electron leakage from the sperm mitochondria, triggered by a multitude of factors that impede electron flow along the electron transport chain...

Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in young men. Several studies have reported an alteration in semen quality in nonseminoma tumors, but this result has not been confirmed in all of the published data. We performed a retrospective study in a population of 1158 men with testicular cancer who banked sperm between 1999 and 2003 in 11 French Centre d'Etude et de Conservation des Oeufs et du Sperme humain laboratories. Our study evaluated prefreeze and postthaw sperm parameters according to patient medical history, tumor histological type, and disease stage...

This study investigates the effect of dietary fat on the testosterone (T) pharmacokinetics in hypogonadal men following administration of a self-emulsifying capsule formulation of oral T undecanoate (TU). In an open-label, 2-center, 5-way crossover study, a single oral dose of TU containing 300-mg equivalents of T (maximum anticipated human dose per administration) was administered to 16 hypogonadal men with a washout period of at least 5 days between doses. All participants were randomized to receive the TU capsules fasting or 30 minutes after an approximately 800-calorie meal containing 10%, 20%, 30%, or 50% fat...

The objective of the study was to evaluate, through quantitative methods, the structural alterations in the corpora cavernosa of rats submitted to orchiectomy as well as the role of late hormone replacement in overturning the possible structural alterations. Twenty-five male rats were assigned into 5 groups with 5 animals each and treated as follows: ORCHIEC-1 = submitted to orchiectomy and sacrificed after 1 month; C-1 = control group sacrificed after 1 month; ORCHIEC-2 = submitted to orchiectomy and sacrificed after 2 months; C-2 = control group sacrificed after 2 months; and T = submitted to orchiectomy, underwent testosterone replacement with testosterone undecanoate (100 mg/kg) after 1 month, and sacrificed after 1 month of hormonal replacement...

Although controversial, seasonal variations in testosterone have been observed in several populations of men throughout the world. This finding might have an impact on screening and treatment of hypogonadism. We examined the circannual patterns of sex hormones in the Southwest United States. A prospectively assembled database of almost 11 000 patients in a men's health practice was used to collect data on testosterone, estradiol, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S)...

Prostate cancer is the most common solid cancer in men and the second leading cause of cancer death in men. A favored treatment option for organ-confined prostate cancer in a middle-aged healthy man is radical prostatectomy (RP). Despite advances in techniques for RP, there remain concerns among physicians and patients alike on its adverse effects on sexual function. Although post-RP erectile dysfunction has been extensively studied, little attention has been focused on the other domains of sexual function, namely loss of libido, ejaculatory dysfunction, orgasmic dysfunction, penile shortening, and Peyronie disease...

The incidence of penile cancer varies by ethnicity and is not well described among Chinese patients. We performed a retrospective study to assess the prognostic factors in Chinese patients with penile invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). We reviewed the medical records of 83 consecutive patients treated at the National Urological Cancer Center (Beijing, China). The Kaplan-Meier method, log-rank test, and multivariate Cox proportional hazard model were used to identify the prognostic factors predicting for cancer-specific survival (CSS)...

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Even though cryopreservation of human spermatozoa is known to alter sperm motility and viability, it may also induce nuclear damages. The present study set out to determine whether or not cryopreservation alters motile sperm morphology under high magnification and/or is associated with chromatin decondensation. For 25 infertile men, we used high-magnification microscopy to determine the proportions of various types of motile spermatozoa before and after freezing-thawing: morphometrically normal spermatozoa with no vacuole (grade I), ≤ 2 small vacuoles (grade II), at least 1 large vacuole or >2 small vacuoles (grade III), and morphometrically abnormal spermatozoa (grade IV)...

Penile and/or cutaneous metastases from prostate adenocarcinoma rarely occur. Here, we detail the case of a 78-year-old man suffering from priapism caused by metastatic prostate cancer with both penile and lower limb cutaneous spread. His serum prostate-specific antigen level was 0.09 μg/L when priapism developed. Corpora cavernosa biopsy was refused by the patient and radical penectomy was performed. Postoperative pathologic and immunohistochemical studies revealed undifferentiated prostate adenocarcinoma cells growing in corpora cavernosa...

The suppression of androgen signaling is a therapeutic target for the treatment of prostate cancer. Resveratrol (3,4',5-trihydroxystilbene) is known to inhibit the function of the androgen receptor (AR). In the present study, we investigated the antiandrogenic activities of resveratrol analogs in order to identify a potent antiandrogen compound. Resveratrol analogs were isolated from plants or were semisynthesized from resveratrol. AR transcriptional activity was measured in prostate cancer LNCaP cells using a luciferase assay with the MMTV-luc reporter plasmid...

As antiretroviral therapy becomes increasingly accessible, the associated improvements in the health, quality of life, and survival of patients are anticipated to influence the fertility determinants of patients, specifically young males, within the reproductive axis. Therefore, the understanding of testicular histology in patients with HIV/AIDS undergoing therapeutic management is essential, because the sexual route is one of the main means of transmission of HIV, which is localized primarily in the germ cells of the testes...

Testosterone deficiency has become a frequently diagnosed condition in today's society affected by epidemic obesity, and is associated with cardiovascular risk. Recent studies have established the importance of altered vascular endothelium function in cardiovascular disease. The damage to the endothelium might also cause endothelial cell detachment, resulting in increased numbers of circulating endothelial cells (CEC) within the bloodstream. To evaluate whether hypogonadism could modify CEC count in peripheral bloodstream, we investigated peripheral blood CEC count using the CellSearch System, a semiautomatic method to accurately and reliably enumerate CECs, which are sorted based on a CD146(+), CD105(+), DAPI(+), CD45(-) phenotype, in a population of 20 patients with hypogonadism...

The simplicity of the surgical procedure, as well as the high rate of success and low rate of complications, is of particular importance for varicocelectomies. We compared operative parameters, complication rates, and sperm parameters after retroperitoneal, microsurgical subinguinal and high inguinal varicocelectomy approaches in infertile men with varicoceles. This study included 307 infertile men with left varicoceles who underwent varicocelectomy by the retroperitoneal (n = 43), microsurgical subinguinal (n = 107), or high inguinal (n = 157) approach...

Nandrolone, an anabolic steroid, slows denervation atrophy of rat muscle, prevents denervation-induced nuclear accumulation of intracellular domain of the Notch receptor, and elevates expression of Numb. Numb acts as an inhibitor of Notch signaling and promotes myogenic differentiation of satellite cells. Turnover of Numb is regulated by mdm2, an E3 ubiquitin ligase. With these considerations in mind, we investigated the effects of nandrolone on the expression of Numb and mdm2 proteins and determined the effect of mdm2 on nandrolone-induced alterations in Numb protein in C2C12 myoblasts...

Cysteine-rich secretory protein 2 (CRISP2) is a testicular sperm protein proposed to be involved in fertilization. With the aim of examining the relevance of CRISP2 for fertility and its potential use as a target for contraception, in the present work, male and female rats were immunized with recombinant CRISP2 coupled to maltose-binding protein (MBP) and evaluated for their subsequent fertility. As controls, animals were injected with either MBP or recombinant CRISP1. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of sera collected at different intervals after immunization indicated that CRISP2 immunization raised specific antibodies in both sexes, with levels that increased as a function of time...